


How We Wander From Fate

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Series: Of Discovery And Strife [3]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anxiety, Banana Discourse, F/M, Sheikah, Sheikah Culture, Sheikah Link, Slow Burn, Telepathy, Yiga Clan - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-20 16:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10666665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: Link woke up with a voice in his head and no memories. Now, he has been taken with members of the Yiga Clan, who Zelda claims are the enemy. But they seem nice, and Link fits with them so naturally he can't explain it.





	1. Emergence

**Author's Note:**

> You do not have to read part 2 in this series to understand this, but I would recommend the 'prologue' which is part 1. Part 2 follows a different storyline with Link going to Zelda instead of the Yiga Clan. This fic is better if you really like the idea of a modern Sheikah culture!

The people behind the rock were not what Link had expected. The way Zelda had described her father’s men made them sound larger, more intimidating. Not that these people weren’t intimidating, they were just a lot more subtle about their threatening demeanour. “Are you Link?” One of them asked, pulling down the hood on their jacket and motioning for their companion to do the same. Link shrugged. He presumed he was Link and the name seemed almost familiar, but he was honestly unsure. He trusted Zelda, but maybe he wasn’t the person she thought he was.

One of the people beckoned him over, and he stood up cautiously, still very much on his guard. These weren’t Zelda’s father’s people. He could tell that now- there was something odd about them that reminded him of something from a long time ago. “Who are you?”

The person leant back against the wall and motioned to the person standing behind them. “Make sure the bastards aren’t coming,” they said. It sounded different, and that just made Link even more confused. “We’re- people. I don’t know how much you know, or what you remember, but myself and my friend are part of an organisation called the Yiga Clan. We learned about you waking up, so we came to get you to make sure you’re safe.”

“Oh. I’m safe, I think, but a bit worried about running out of air.” These people were considerably nicer than whatever Link had been expecting. That was a consolation, certainly. “You came to get me? Where are we going? I don’t remember anything at all.” He sighed.

“That’s okay, I’m sure we can try and help you,” the person said, holding out a dark item with one arm. “Here, I brought a coat for you because it’ll probably be dark by the time we get to where we’re going. We’re taking you to the other side of the city we’re currently in, Castle Town, to the neighbourhood where we live so you can get a quick medical check up.”

“Thank you.” Link surreptitiously checked the coat for anything that could hurt him, and then slid it on. The two people smiled at him and then walked on, and Link followed. Even if these weren’t the people Zelda’s father had sent, he didn’t much mind. They seemed nice.

“Don’t trust them, Link,” Zelda told him immediately. She sounded worried and slightly afraid. “The Yiga Clan are no better than the people my father commands. They look less threatening, but half of them are assassins and thieves. They hurt people every day.”

‘If they’re no better than the people your father commands, doesn’t that mean that his people are assassins and thieves, too? I’ll be fine, Zelda.’ He still wanted to meet her, but it seemed like that was not going to be happening any time soon. Not if he was going with these Yiga Clan people. He was perfectly aware that they could be scary too, especially if he resisted, and that would do no good because he really had no idea what was going to happen next. He didn’t know where he was, though the name Castle Town was familiar, and when he stepped outside he confirmed that feeling.

The field that swept out in front of him was one he barely recognised. There was a little recognition in the back of his mind, but at the same time there were so many things that just felt wrong. “Fine, Link. But please, be careful.” Zelda did not sound happy. But Link had his own survival to worry about, and perhaps these people would be a little more willing to provide information about his past than Zelda had been.

“Keep an eye out,” the other person who had come to collect him said. “There are probably some people who aren’t very friendly coming through here soon, and there might be a few of them. If you catch any sign of some bulky Hylians, let us know as soon as you can.”

“Will we have to fight them? I can fight.” And he could. He really could. Link didn’t know where the memories came from, but he knew how to fight, be it with his fists or with a knife. If these people needed his help, he could offer it.

“I’ll trust in your ability only if we need to,” the man said, reaching to the left of his belt and looking around before pulling out a rather vicious-looking knife and handing it to Link. “This is my spare. Only use it if someone else comes at you with something just as bad.” Link could hear Zelda telling him to refuse the knife in his head, but he ignored her. He didn’t want to be a burden on these people.

“Thank you.” He turned the blade over in his hands, admiring it. The tip of it was razor sharp, and the blade itself was curved- no doubt this would work with deadly efficiency. Link rather hoped that he wouldn’t have to kill anyone, but at least he would be defended if it came to that. 

They walked on in silence for a while, and it was making Link uneasier by the second. Since he’d woken up, there’d always been something. Now, even Zelda was quiet. Silent, but he knew she was there. She wouldn’t be gone, unless he had been going mad because of the lack of people around. But he could feel her presence still, tucked away in the back of his head. She was just...in a mood. She didn’t want to talk to him because of what he’d chosen to do. That seemed a little unfair to Link, and he hoped that Zelda could feel his opinions.

After leaving the field and entering a more crowded area, all Link could do was accept that he was completely out of his depth and there was no way he would be able to do this on his own. If he’d been particularly opposed to these people, he probably would have had to go along with them anyway because this place was so unfamiliar. There were roads, which he sort of recognised, but they weren’t the kind of roads that made sense and he hadn’t seen a horse yet. Instead, there were very fast...things, that seemed to be made out of metal. Link couldn’t recall ever seeing anything like them, but then again, there were an awful lot of things that he couldn’t recall at the moment. “What’s going on?” He asked, mostly to himself, and the person in front of him turned around.

“Are you talking about the cars?” They asked. There was a hint of a smile on their face, but they didn’t sound mocking when they asked. “Method of transportation, but probably not the best way to travel in Castle Town because you need a licence and the police can stop you if they don’t like you, and most of them are Centurion.”

“I see…” Link did not see. Not really. Fast metal boxes were just a little too much at the moment. “What’s a- um, who are the Centurions?” It was a word he didn’t recognise, and it was hard to copy it. He had to hope that these people were better at answering questions than Zelda was. They hadn’t been too bad so far.

The person behind him spat onto the ground and said ‘bastards’ again, and the man’s friend laughed. “He said they’re bastards,” he said, as if Link didn’t know that was exactly what he’d said, “and they are. Half the police force and a group of Hylian supremacists get together in a gang and decide to beat Sheikah up on behalf of some shit politician.” Link didn’t understand what ‘supremacist’ meant, but he wasn’t going to argue the point.

“Oh.” The shit politician in question was probably Zelda’s father. Link frowned, but he didn’t want to say anything more on the subject in case he annoyed them. He was content to walk along with these new people, as strange as the whole situation was, and he knew he needed their help. “How much further do we have to walk?”

“Farther,” the person in front said. “At least, I think it’s that. Don’t ask me about Hylian grammar. It’s about ten minutes until we’re in safe territory and from there we can get the bus to where you can get checked out.”

“The what?” The word ‘bus’ didn’t even sound like a word to him. Link was pretty sure that this person must have made some sort of a mistake. Although, ‘car’ hadn’t sounded much like a word, either. This place was strange.

“Bus. In the Sheikah neighbourhood, anyone can travel within the neighbourhood to the bus stops for free, though some drivers won’t let Hylians go without paying.” These people sounded like the kind of people who’d do that. “So we travel on the bus, which is a long, large car, basically. It’s like a really big horse and carriage?”

“Right…” Link couldn’t imagine how big a horse would need to be in order to pull a carriage with more than maybe ten people in it. He looked around, and he could see that the style of the buildings was gradually starting to change. They looked slightly more reasonable and fewer of them were made of materials he didn’t recognise.

The style of the buildings reminded him of something. When he glanced over to a door and saw an eye painted on it, he almost stopped in his tracks because of the moment of recognition. He knew that. Out of all the things he’d seen so far, that was the closest he’d come to memory. That was the eye of truth and he knew it.

“Recognise that?” The people guiding him stopped in their tracks along with Link, letting him get a better look at the symbol. “Do you know what it is, Link? I expect you saw it a lot, back when the war was going on?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Link admitted. He didn’t remember a war. He knew that he knew how to fight, but he didn’t know where he’d picked that up. “I know the symbol is the eye of truth.” The person looked confused as he spoke. “What?”

“You speak Sheikah?” The person’s voice had changed somehow, although Link couldn’t quite tell what had changed. “What you said just now, eye of truth, you didn’t say it in Hylian. And I’m not speaking Hylian now. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, it just- I-I can’t explain it,” he said. He couldn’t explain it, and he couldn’t explain why this felt so natural, so right. Even as he stumbled for the correct words to voice his feelings, they still came more naturally than before. He didn’t understand what was going on at all. “I can’t explain, but yes.”

“Interesting. And helpful. We had people ready to spend weeks teaching you Sheikah,and now it seems that all of that will be unnecessary. I’m sure your teachers will be relieved…no offence, but there are more fun things to do than teach someone else to speak your language.”

Link smiled at them, but really the revelation was making him slightly dizzy, as well as the recognition of the things around him. He was scared and in a new place and this was familiar but still so, so wrong. It wasn’t as it was meant to be.

“Let’s get you to safety. You look like you’re going to pass out. I suppose you haven’t eaten in a hundred years, though.” Link felt an arm around him, and he was led off towards a slightly smaller side street. He blinked, and then blinked again, but the fog was barely clearing in his mind. “Right, we’ll get on the bus and we’ll be at the safe house as soon as we can be. There are doctors there who should be able to help.”

Link found himself being led to a small bench by a pole in the ground, and encouraged to sit down. “This is the bus stop,” one of his guides explained. “It should be along any minute now…we only just made it in time.”

“Okay,” he said. He just now realised that his sides were hurting and his legs felt weak. Everything felt unreal and he almost felt on the verge of tears. He really needed to get a grip on what was happening, but he didn’t know how.

“Hey, are you alright? You’re shaking, Link.” This wasn’t surprising news. He was in a brand new world with two people who knew his name and knew a considerable amount more about him than he did about himself. He didn’t even know their names, for goodness’ sake.

He shook his head, but he felt like he couldn’t do any more. He felt stupid just sitting here, waiting for things to happen and being unable to deal with anything. There was nothing in particular that was bothering him, it was just everything, and he wanted to be able to deal with it without any fuss but he couldn’t set his mind to it.

“Hey, it’s alright. We’ll be home soon, and you can rest. You’ll be fine, Link.” Barely sooner than they’d finished speaking, something about ten times as large as any of the cars Link had seen pulled around the corner. Oh, he just wanted this day to be over.


	2. New Homes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link arrives in the place he's going to be staying and finds out a little more about what's going on.

Buses were not Link’s favourite mode of transport. Not even close. By the time he finally got off it, he felt sick. The people travelling with him had to help him walk for another five minutes to some large and rather secure looking house. That, at least, wasn’t horrifyingly unfamiliar. Though, really, he was beginning to think that familiar was much worse. Every time he saw something he recognised in the back of some part of his mind, everything that was new became harder to understand. He was here, but every time he remembered something, it felt like the person he was in his head was not the person who was here physically.

“Here we are. Link, stay with us. As soon as you get inside, we promise you can rest. There’s a bed made up for you and everything.” He nodded weakly, mumbling out a vague thanks. All of this was giving him a headache. “But just before that, we’re going to take you to see a doctor. Just like a healer back before all of this, she’s just going to try and explain how you feel to you and then tell you how to make it so you can feel better.”

They reached the door, and Link leaned against the wall next to it. He’d had enough of standing upright. Even if he couldn’t remember what he’d been doing being asleep for what must have been many many years, he wouldn’t mind being asleep in that place again. There were no other people there. “How long was I asleep?” He asked, directing the question at neither of them in particular. For the first time in a while, the man spoke up.

“About a hundred years, we think,” he said, and Link just looked at him. Didn’t that mean that just about everyone he knew before would be dead? He was probably going to be without the full truth of his life before forever. A hundred years. It wasn’t just everyone he knew; he should be dead too.

“Why am I even alive…?” The question was more rhetorical than anything; he didn’t expect an answer, and he didn’t get one. These people probably didn’t know, either. Before he could actually faint from exhaustion, the door swung open, revealing an older woman. Unfamiliar, but she looked trustworthy. She looked nice.

“Is this our new friend, Dureal?” The woman asked, smiling down at him from where he was still on the ground. “I’m sorry. My Hylian isn’t that good, so you’ll have to excuse my strange sentences.”

“Don’t worry,” one of the people who had been leading him, presumably Dureal, answered. “We don’t know why, but he seems to understand and speak Sheikah just as well as he speaks Hylian.”

“Oh! Well, that’s a relief. Do come in, Link.” She opened the door wider, beckoning him inside. “I see you look tired, so I’ll make this medical exam quick. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt a bit. Just some standard questions and then a couple of tests for reflexes and your eyes and then some medical spells you’ll get the results for tomorrow.”

Dureal stepped into the house, so Link followed. He felt a tiny bit overwhelmed by how nice this woman was being already, so he hoped he got to rest soon. ‘Are you still there?’ He asked Zelda.

“Just be careful,” she told him. “Don’t let them take your blood or anything like that. You can do a lot of magic with blood and you could get hurt.”

“Are you going to take my blood?” Link tried to sound nervous, as if that was something that would scare him.

“No! No, nothing like that. You don’t need to worry, Link.” The woman smiled at him. “Just take a seat over there, and I’ll get started.” He did as she asked, and she smiled again. She was very smiley. “Okay, first I’m just going to ask you a few questions about how you’re feeling and what happened to you today. Do you remember anything before waking up earlier this afternoon?”

“I don’t. Um, when I was walking here, there was a symbol painted on someone’s door…the eye of truth. I recognised that, but I don’t know where from. And a few other things seem familiar too, but I can’t place them.” The woman was scribbling down notes as he spoke, occasionally looking up and smiling at him.

“How did you react when you woke up, and what happened before we came to get you?” She asked.

“Don’t mention me at all,” Zelda told him. Link tried to mentally convey the feeling of rolling his eyes at her. Of course he wouldn’t tell anyone about the girl’s voice in his head. They’d think he was crazy and it might put him or Zelda in danger.

“I just…I, um, I was quite tired. It didn’t sink in what was really happening until a few minutes before Dureal and, um, the other one arrived. I think I panicked a bit, it’s kind of hazy…” He’d panicked more than a bit, really, but he was too tired to clarify his statement and he didn't want people to know that there was anything wrong with him. He just wanted to sleep.

“Maris,” the man said. “My name is Maris, I didn’t realise we hadn’t introduced ourselves to you, and I’m sorry for that.” Link smiled at him, hoping that maybe they’d just let him go now.

“Do you have a headache at all?” The woman asked. “My name is Turignai, while we’re on the topic. And did you recognise the name Link when someone referred to you as such?”

“I do…I have a headache, and I’m exhausted. But also...hungry. And quite thirsty.” Link had to stop speaking then in order to yawn, making a half-hearted attempt to cover his mouth. “And yes, I recognised my name. I don’t know much else about myself, though. I don’t even know my age…” One hundred and something, he supposed.

Turignai looked him over quickly. “I would say that, physically, you’re about sixteen or seventeen. I’ll be conducting some tests using magic when we finally let you rest, so I’ll be able to tell you exactly how old you are in the morning. I’m just going to test the muscles in your eyes briefly, so there’ll be a light. I’ll do a full examination of them in the morning.”

“Right.” Link didn’t know what he expected when she mentioned a light, but it wasn’t a small silver stick that clicked and then glowed easily as brightly as any fire he’d ever seen, and with a much whiter light. He couldn’t help but flinch as it shone right in his eye, leaving his vision dancing with pink and yellow spots.

“They’re not responding quite as they’re meant to, but I think I can put that down to tiredness,” she said. “And physically your responses seem to be working, because your flinch was an instinct. You’re good to go and get some sleep now, and you can eat when you wake up.”

“Thank you.” Link stood up, and Dureal caught his arm. That was good, because he thought he might have fallen over otherwise. 

“Hey Link,” they asked as they led him out of the room. “Do you like bananas?”

Link looked at them for a moment, processing what they’d said. It was apparently something funny, because Turignai and Maris both laughed as they said it. “I don’t remember.” He didn't even recognise the word, but he didn't want to admit it. From the way it was phrased, though, he imagined it was a food.

“Well, I sure hope you like them. We eat a lot of them here.” Dureal grinned. “Come on. Let’s go to your bedroom, at least the one you’ll have for the next couple of days. You’ve got a good room, nice view. Half of us get a view of the slums from our windows, which is less nice.”

“The slums?” He asked. That wasn’t a concept he recognised, but the way they said it made it sound normal. It must be a fixed feature, then.

“This is the Sheikah area of the city,” Maris explained. “The government hate us, so we don’t have much money, and the Hylians hate us so lots of people don’t have a job. So there is an area here with low housing quality which is called the slums. The Yiga Clan, that’s the group me and Dureal are part of, try to make it as liveable there as possible, but it’s hard.”

“Oh…why doesn’t anyone with more money try and help?” As nice as the people here were, it didn’t seem like many people outside of the Sheikah shared Link’s opinion of them. He was quiet as his two guides led him to a door, which they pushed open into what was presumably his room. It was...fairly nice, considering.

Dureal chuckled. Link wasn’t sure if he was being laughed at or not, but he didn’t feel like he was meant to join in anyway. “That would be great, but the only person with money who is willing to assist us is...not interested in eradicating poverty. He uses his money for other things, but we’re not meant to speak ill of him.”

“What other things? Surely making sure people live well is important.” Link was only half-invested in this conversation, really. His gaze had landed on the bed pressed up against the wall, and all he wanted to do was sink into it and sleep.

“You’re right,” Dureal said, “but it isn’t my place to talk about how I think the slums should be dealt with. In fact, I could lose my job if I did so it’s better we don’t talk about it at all.” He followed Link’s gaze to his bed. “We’ll leave you be for now, so get some sleep and we can have a proper conversation and work out what you can do next in the morning.”

“Okay. Thank you.” Link smiled gratefully at the two of them, stepping forwards towards the bed. Dureal patted him on the shoulder and then they both turned to leave, finally leaving Link alone with a bed. Thank the Goddesses. He was exhausted. He wasted absolutely no time in kicking off the boots he’d been given and then getting under the two layers of blankets. Bliss. Within moments, he had calmed his mind down enough that he felt safe and he could finally, finally get some sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> (Also I prefer this fic because Link is happier tbh) Please leave a comment if you enjoyed! Getting feedback really helps with motivation. If you want to talk about this fic (or LoZ in general), feel free to contact me on my Tumblr, softbreathofthewild :)


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